The 1969 Moon Landing Was Almost a Disaster.

If you were around in 1959, and told your friends that 10 years from now, we'll be
sending men to the moon and bringing them back safely to earth, you would have
been laughed at, ridiculed and probably told to see a psychiatrist.

(Image: © NASA Johnson)

This was considered a fantasy at the time, not too different than saying that in 2029 we're
going to visit Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. Yet on July 20th
1969, that's what happened. Neil Armstrong took Man's first step on the moon on
that day.

A thousand years from now, when historians look back on the history of
mankind, Neil Armstrong's name will likely still be remembered. The moon
landing is perhaps man's greatest technological accomplishment, ever in the
history of human civilization. The 50-year anniversary of this momentous
event is in 2019. and we should celebrate. This is not just a celebration for the
United States, the flag of which these three men represented, but the entire
world because that landing represents the zenith of human technology and
ingenuity.

Buzz Aldrin, on the left, practices scooping up a sample while Neil Armstrong, on the right, photographs the collection, during a practice session held before the Apollo 11 mission.

(Image: © NASA Johnson)

Yet this event should never have happened. The odds for success were
very low. Even Neil Armstrong only gave it a 50% chance of success.
Computer technology was measured in kilobytes and megahertz at the time, not
terabytes and gigahertz of today, a million times less powerful. The
astronauts had to be shielded from deadly cosmic rays. The number of stages
involved in the rocket launch, from Earth orbit, to lunar orbit, to descent on the
moon, to ascent, the landing back on earth - all had to be choreographed and
practiced to perfection, with little to no room for error. Safety margins were
razor thin.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin unpacks a seismic experiment on the surface of the moon.

(Image: © NASA)

The smallest anomaly could cause disaster. Everything had to work
flawlessly. is it any wonder that millions of people believe that we never
landed there? Yet it happened - not just once, but six times over three and a half
years, between 1969 and 1972, in multiple Apollo missions. But the very first
mission had two life-threatening events that could have easily ended in disaster.

These potential disasters are now mostly forgotten, but it's time to remember them
on this anniversary. They remind us of how individual creativity, and
determination can turn catastrophe into stupendous success.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle in orbit. Credit: NASA

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were in the Eagle lunar module on their final
descent. They were falling rapidly towards the surface of the Moon at 20
feet per second. But when they looked out the window, they did not recognize
anything they saw. They had not seen this terrain in any of their numerous
simulations, nor seen it in dozens of photographs that they had studied from
previous Apollo missions. It turns out that a navigational error and a faster
than anticipated speed, caused them to overshoot the planned landing zone by
four miles.

Now the terrain was not smooth, as it would have been had been landed in
their designated landing site. Instead, there was a huge crater field and
car-sized boulders, dangerous areas to land. But they had to land, and land soon,
because they were running low on fuel. 400 feet or 122 meters before they hit
the surface, Armstrong decided to level the craft and cruise horizontally until
he could find a smoother surface to land on. This of course would use up more fuel.
If they did not land before running out of fuel, they would drop to the ground
like a rock.

The Apollo 11 lunar landing module Eagle, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard, is photographed above the moon by crew mate Michael Collins on the Columbia command module during rendezvous operations on July 21, 1969. The Apollo 11 moon landing, and other NASA Apollo missions, were risky missions for astronauts and the space agency. 

(Image: © NASA)

At best, they would almost certainly damage the craft beyond repair,
or they would have to abort the mission, which was equally risky, because it was
not known whether there was enough time to ignite the ascent engine before they
hit the ground. And there was not going to be a rescue mission. They were flying
to save their lives! There were 60 seconds of fuel left.
They had not found a suitable landing spot.

Houston control: "Down two and a half,
"forward, forward..." In Houston, they heard the 60-second low fuel alarm warning.
In normal simulations, the craft was expected to land with plenty of fuel, or two
minutes of fuel left. But at the 60-second mark, they were still
about a hundred feet, or ten stories above the moon's surface. Armstrong began
to descend further. 30 seconds left. They were still 10 feet or 3 meters off the
ground.

Photo of the Apollo Lunar Module's interior (source and credit: NASA).

At this point, the thrust from the engine was kicking up so much moon dust
that they could not tell exactly how far off the surface they were. All they could
see was a haze of powder and a few boulders. The contact light finally came
on, and they were on the surface. Only 20 seconds of fuel was left!
And disaster had been averted. Houston controllers breathed a sigh of
relief, but celebrated only mildly, knowing that the mission was long from
over.

There was supposed to be a four-hour rest period before Armstrong
and Aldrin were to explore the surface of the Moon. But within 3 hours, they were
eager and ready to go. After exploring the surface of the Moon for about two
and a half hours, when they came back into the module, as they took their backpacks
off, unbeknownst to them at the time, Aldrin's backpack had snapped off
something on the control panel. And as the astronauts were getting ready for
some long overdue sleep, Aldrin noticed a small black object
lying on the floor, and realized it was a circuit breaker switch.

Buzz Aldrin next to the Lunar Module.

Scanning the control panel, he noticed that the switch was missing from one that was labeled
"Engine Arm." Now, they could have broken numerous switches on that control panel,
and it would have made no difference. But this circuit breaker switch was special.
It happened to be the one required in order to ignite the ascent engine, so
they could go back up into orbit. If the engine did not ignite, they could not
return home. And there would be no rescue mission. So this tiny black switch could
potentially determine whether they lived or died. He told Houston and they didn't
immediately know what to do. They said, "We"ll
"work on this down here, so you guys go ahead and go to sleep." Of course these
guys could not sleep, with this looming catastrophe hanging over their heads.

Contrary to the popular narrative, it was not a metal ball point space pen that
Aldrin inserted into the circuit, but a spare plastic felt tip pen that he had
brought with him on his spacesuit that saved the day, and saved their lives.
Aldrin: "I had gotten a felt tip pen so I could read the writings on the rendezvous"
"chart. So I used it, felt tip pen two hours before."

"Hey we got a circuit! We got power! So we were coming pretty close to not being able to come home."
I want to add a couple of thoughts about the fact that there are millions of
people in the world who don't believe that man has ever walked on the moon.
Some stats are pretty surprising. In 1969, less than 5% of people doubted the
authenticity of the video images they were seeing on their TV screens. But
today, a full 6% of Americans doubt the moon landing ever took place.

All the iconic images of the astronauts from the Apollo 11 mission were taken by Neil Armstrong. Here, Buzz Aldrin stands next to the motionless US flag.

And over 50 percent of Russians refuse to believe that Americans set foot on
the moon. Now this may not be all that surprising because there's widespread
government control of media, and propaganda disseminated by the Russian
regime. But the most surprising stat is that 25 percent of British people, and 9
percent of French people - our allies, do not believe we landed on the moon.

What would be the irrefutable proof that could convince people that we did land
there? Well, check out my article about "A History of Moon Hoaxes" here.